This study examines the application of a self-reliance framework for practitioners and evaluatorsto better understand the capacities and intrinsic factors impacting smallholder coffee farmers’commercialization behaviors. We surveyed 40 smallholder coffee producers in Peru using aquantitative instrument. Data were analyzed to determine if statistical relationships existbetween farmers’ self-reliance (measured via knowledge and skills, attitudes, and aspirations)and their commercialization behaviors. Findings indicate the self-reliance framework effectivelyillustrates relationships between farmers’ aspirations, knowledge and skills and theircommercialization behaviors, while future, additional studies are needed to better measure andunderstand the role of commercialization-related attitudes. Practitioners can leverage thestudy’s findings by using a self-reliance framework to infer farmers’ likeliness to pursuesustainable commercialization practices and align their trainings and design interventions basedon evaluation findings. The conceptual self-reliance framework is the first of its kind applied forsmallholder coffee commercialization. The findings demonstrate that self-reliance conceptsemployed recently in other contexts may potentially be used similarly by extension anddevelopment facilitators.
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